Toradora! 17
とらドラ！Episode 17

SPOILER Summary/Synopsis:

Minori is pitching at a softball match, but her distraction over Ami’s comments to her about her guilt cause her to make an error that costs her team the game. Meanwhile, Ryuuji and Taiga are out shopping as Taiga enjoys the Christmas decorations and is happy to be returning to school. Taiga plans to be very good so that Santa will visit her. However, she is not pleased by Ryuuji’s lack of progress with Minori, especially since Taiga wasn’t around to confuse the issue. Taiga promises Ryuuji that she’ll come up with a good plan of attack to get Ryuuji and Minori together.

The next morning at school, Taiga and Ryuuji are stunned by the large number of guys waiting for Taiga. These guys praise Taiga for her fight with Sumire, so Taiga starts drinking in the adoration and has to be pushed into school by Ryuuji. In their classroom, they find Minori wearing a bald cap and singing a strange song. Taiga rushes to hug her best friend and wonders why Minori didn’t meet them at the usual place. Minori says she overslept and rushed in. When Ryuuji speaks, Minori snaps at him before apologizing and crying. Yuusaku arrives and greets Taiga by laying face-down on the ground, feeling that simply bowing isn’t enough. He thanks her for what she did for him but asks her to talk to him first before fighting someone.

At lunch, the intercom system has Yuusaku interviewing Yuri-sensei (who pretends to be someone else) about love and the like, which surprises Taiga. She gets an explanation about Yuusaku’s reputation for love after his confession on stage. When Yuusaku announces the Christmas party in the gym on Christmas Eve. So Taiga tells Ryuuji that he has to ask Minori out to the party and that Taiga, as an angel of love, will be there for him. Because it is Christmas Eve, Ryuuji will have to confess his love to Minori and Taiga will be Ryuuji’s Cupid.

After Haruta tells his weird, somewhat ero “cool party” dream, Yuusaku says that the need people to be on the staff for the Christmas party. Several in the class convince Taiga to be on the committee and she ropes Ryuuji in. Taiga tries to get Minori in, but she declines, citing her failure on the softball field. Ami realizes what is going on and volunteers. Ryuuji isn’t thrilled with Ami’s act, so Ami quietly tells Ryuuji that he should be nice to her since she has a plan to get a certain depressed person to come. Minori hears this but still refuses to join in and leaves the classroom. This confuses Taiga and lets Ami know that she has a lot of work to do.

After learning his mother is trying to be hip and apologizing to Inko-chan for having a Christmas cookbook with a roasted turkey on the cover, Ryuuji goes with Taiga to Jonny’s for a round of studying, using Sumire’s extensive notes which he won with Minori. They quickly discover that Minori lied to them about working that night and Taiga is troubled by the shift in the relationship between Ryuuji and Minori. Haruta arrives with Noto while Yuusaku arrives with Maya.

Haruta and Noto quickly arrange for Yuusaku and Taiga to be alone at one table while everyone else is at the booth. This does not sit well with Maya, who clearly has feelings for Yuusaku. Ryuuji knows they are plotting something so when he asks what they are up to, Haruta and Noto believe Ryuuji doesn’t know that Taiga is in love with Yuusaku. After their study session, Ryuuji finds he has confused feelings about Taiga and Yuusaku being together. Maya approaches him, saying she believes that he has feelings for Taiga and that Taiga and Yuusaku aren’t a good couple. She says that she’ll support Ryuuji before their conversation is interrupted by the others.

Thoughts/Review:

With the departure of Sumire, I had wondered how things would go on the romantic front. After all, Taiga has a romantic interest in Yuusaku, Yuusaku had (and may still have) a romantic interest in Sumire, Ryuuji has a romantic interest in Minori, Ami may have a romantic interest in Ryuuji, and Taiga and Ryuuji supported each other in their romantic efforts, so much so that they are mistakenly thought to be a couple. Now with KIHARA Maya (who’d only been one of the girls Ami also hung out with) being shown to have an interest in Yuusaku, I guess that’s the answer I was looking for. It opens the door for a potential conflict for Ami over whom to support — Maya or Taiga.

Minori’s continued depression and distraction seems misplaced to me. Hugh Roe commented last episode about Minori’s feelings for Ryuuji, so I understand that aspect. That said, having learned that Taiga is in love with Yuusaku, shouldn’t she feel relieved as Ami suggested last week? Minori has not developed feelings for her best friend’s boyfriend. So what is she still feeling guilty and distracted about? It has to be more than just losing that softball game. Maybe Minori feels that Taiga is best with Ryuuji despite knowing Taiga’s interest in Yuusaku. Or maybe it is some character aspect of Minori’s which the anime has not yet explored. Or maybe she’s angry with Ryuuji or angry with herself. I’m not sure.

Still, this episode has Ryuuji suddenly realizing how much Taiga had become a part of his life. He and she are together most of the time and if she and Yuusaku were to start dating, suddenly, Ryuuji would be spending a lot of time alone. While he may be friends with Ami, there is still a pretty big gap between them. Also, he can make no progress with Minori, especially with the way she’s acting of late. His mother isn’t so good and I think that Ryuuji realized how lonely he’d be. With Maya now in the picture, we’ll see if the writers have Ryuuji develop deeper feelings for Taiga.

Taiga was a lot of fun in this episode. I love how she gushes over Christmas. As an aside, I couldn’t help but think, “See ACLU and other numskulls who want Christmas all but banned in the U.S.? Japan is certainly no Christian nation, yet somehow they don’t have a problem with Christmas. So the question is, why do you?” But I digress. Anyway, Taiga’s excitement over Christmas and Santa-san were sweet as well as humorous when she talked of being good.

Another Taiga element I liked is her having an adoring crowd of guys waiting for her. I really hope that continues because I think it would be an interesting element, especially if Taiga gets asked out a lot.

Finally, there’s Ami. She’s also trying to help Taiga with Minori by trying to convince Minori to come to the Christmas party and to help with the party. I suspect, as I’m sure many of you do, that Ami has some level of feelings for Ryuuji. Being a model, she’s used to being fawned over and she takes advantage of those guys. With Ryuuji, you get someone who’s not fawning over her which makes him a challenge. Girls like a challenge like this from a guy they see as interesting or attractive on some level. Still, we’ll see how Ami does with Minori. Why didn’t she go to the study session?

New OP/ED theme music this time. Sounds pretty good, though it didn’t grab me outright.

Well, onto episode 18 whenever it arrives.